Middle East Business News Review – 5 November

British Prime Minister David Cameron is in the United Arab Emirates to kickoff a three-day trade visit to the Middle East aimed at securing major UK arms deals with Gulf Arab states.

The Downing Street issued a statement in which it said the aim of the trip is to build a “reinvigorated partnership” with Middle Eastern leaders and to secure new military deals worth billions of pounds.

The Conservative leader is in Abu Dhabi to persuade the UAE to buy 60 of BAE’s Typhoon jets in a deal that could be worth more than $4.81bn. He is scheduled to fly to a military airbase near Dubai, where a RAF Typhoon squadron is positioned, to promote the aircraft to military and political figures from the UAE.

Top Abu Dhabi banker Khalifa Mohammed al-Kindi is the new chairman of the United Arab Emirates’ central bank, a statement from the bank after a board meeting showed on Monday.

Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi remains governor of the bank for now, according to the bank statement, although his term, which expired in July, has yet to be officially renewed.

The chairman, who heads board meetings and has the final say on policy decisions, is involved in strategic decision-making, while the governor steers the bank’s day-to-day operations and represents it at high-level international events.

Qatari developer Msheireb Properties said on Monday it has appointed Brookfield Multiplex Medgulf as the main building contractors responsible for a key part of its QR20bn ($5.49bn) Msheireb Downtown Doha project.

Under the terms of the agreement, valued at QR1.5bn ($411m), Brookfield Multiplex Medgulf, a consortium of Brookfield Multiplex and Medgulf, will be responsible for the construction of all the substructure and superstructure works involved in Phase 1C of the project.

The $5.5bn Msheireb scheme will transform a 31-hectare site in the centre of Doha, recreating a way of living that is rooted in Qatari culture.

The expenditure is part of the emirate’s long-term strategy to raise output capacity to 4.0 million barrels per day from the current 3.0 million, Zanki said on the sidelines of the Kuwait Energy Projects conference organised by the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED).

Iraq announced on Monday it has signed a final gas exploration contract with Pakistan Petroleum to explore gas block 8, covering an area of 6,000 square km in Diyala and Wasit provinces in eastern Iraq.

Iraq, holder of the world’s 10th-largest gas reserves, said the gas will be used in the domestic market, mainly for power generation, with the option of exporting gas once domestic needs are met.

US aerospace giant Boeing Company has secured a contract valued at US$4bn to modernise the Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force’s fighter jet fleet, according to the Pentagon.

The procurement order covers conversion of 68 existing F15S jets to the new F15S-A configuration. The Pentagon said the work, expected to be completed by December 31, 2019, would be done at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

The contract also provides for four base stand-up kits, which include spares and support equipment needed to achieve operating capability for the fighter jets.

Lebanon will complete linking telecom switchboards to a fiber-optics network in April 2013, paving the way for the launchof the fourth generation of mobile networks in major cities, the telecommunications minister said over the weekend.

“Switchboards across the country will be linked through a comprehensive fiber optics network … The Lebanese would feel a qualitative shift in [Internet connections] speed,” Nicolas Sehnaoui said at the opening ceremony for a newly completed fiber optic network operations center.

The NOC is a part of a project conducted by Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson, which last year won a $6.3 million first phase bid to set up Lebanon’s Optical Transport Network.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Middle Eastern airlines by far witnessed the strongest traffic growth in September, with demand hitting 13.3% year-on-year.

The region registered a growth rate of 17% in August due to seasonal impacts, including Ramadan, dampening traffic. The IATA report comes at a time when global aviation industry is facing a slowdown in the rate of traffic growth.

International demand for passenger traffic was up 4.1% compared to September 2011. For air cargo, demand growth was even weaker at 0.6%. The growth trend in air travel started to flatten in the second quarter, with no growth in passenger market between April and August.

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